Diana Hagen
Diana Hagen was "one of the most powerful witches in history" She was the older sister of Artemis, the sister-in-law to Jonathan. the maternal aunt of Alison, Adam, Christopher, Matthew, Dominic, Samantha, Daniel and also the great-aunt Lucy, Cassie and Isabella Described by Alison as the most powerful witch she has ever seen, Diana first gained her enhanced powers by linking her magic to the magic possessed by her then five-year-old niece Alison. Once Alison reached adulthood, Diana then cast a spell that allows them both to gain pseudo-immortality by leap-frogging through time; the women were put into a magically-induced sleep for nearly a century, only to awaken for one single year of life and aging with all of the magic they accrued over their hundred-year-long slumber, before they would once again return to their sleep after the year had passed. Diana's understanding of magic after so many years of study is extensive enough that she was able to create her own form of Connective Magic in the 10th century. She also had the ability to sense the magic of other witches, especially those of the first-born children of her and her sister Artemis's bloodline, as the first-born witches of their lineage possess devastating amounts of power. According to Alison, Diana aimed to be truly immortal without having to sleep for centuries, and she will not hesitate to come and claim the first-born Chamberlain witches to achieve this goal, even if it means destroying anyone who stands in her way. Diana was a relative to the Chamberlain Family via her sister, and was a member of an Warren Family. Early History Diana was born in Norway at some point in the 10th century. She was the first-born child of unnamed witch parents and the oldest sister of Artemis. They both belonged to a long and powerful bloodline of witches whose first-born children are well-known to possess even greater magical strength, and because of this, Diana and Artemis were presumably taught the craft from a young age. Diana devoted herself to the mystical arts (unlike her sister Artemis, who felt insecure in her abilities in comparison to her prodigious sister and as a result did not take her practice of witchcraft as seriously), and Diana grew to become a very skilled and powerful witch. Sometime between the late 960s and the early 970s A.D., Viking warriors attacked Diana's village and killed everyone in it. Diana and Artemis then hid behind a wheelbarrow, the two sisters promised each other that they would remain together no matter what happened, "always and forever". When a Viking found the sisters and attempted to attack Artemis, Diana telekinetically shoved him away from her, which led the Vikings to take both girls prisoner rather than killing them like the rest of the villagers. The girls were taken to a nearby hovel, where Diana agreed to do the Dark Magic that the Vikings wanted from her to ensure that Artemis wouldn't be harmed; instead, Diana took the abuse from the Vikings in Artemis's place to protect her from most of the horrors of their situation. One day, while toiling in the hovel while Artemis picked herbs for her outdoors, Diana managed to stealthily infuse potent sage with serpent's blood to give herself and Artemis the magical strength necessary to escape their captivity. However, when Artemis returned and Diana explained her plan, Artemis instead confessed that she no longer wanted to practice witchcraft because she had fallen in love with one of their Viking captors, Jonathan, with whom she planned to marry and start a family. Diana was emotionally devastated by this revelation and begged Artemis to stay with her, reminding her of their promise to stay together forever, but though Artemis assured her they would always be sisters, she left despite Diana's pleas and married Jonathan some time later. It was after this event that Diana, who was angry that she was living in subjugation under the Vikings and was betrayed by Artemis, vowed that she would never be weak again, a vow that would ultimately shape who Diana became in adulthood. In 972 A.D., after being married to Jonathan for a year and still not succeeding in conceiving a child, Artemis feared she was cursed to be barren and begged Diana for her assistance in casting a fertility spell. This angered Diana, who pointed out that if Artemis hadn't abandoned her heritage as a witch in pursuit of marriage and motherhood with a Viking warrior, she would be able to help herself. However, in spite of her disappointment in her sister, Diana agreed to help Artemis and admitted that she could never deny her baby sister. However, Diana warned her that such magic would require a great sacrifice. Desperate with nowhere else to turn, Artemis blindly agreed to the terms; in exchange for casting the fertility spell on Artemis, Diana would be given claim to Artemis's first-born child, as well as every first-born child that followed for as long as Artemis's bloodline should last. However, a millennia later, Artemis would refer to Diana as someone who was willing to magically solve a person's problems for a steep price, suggesting that perhaps Diana's motives in helping Artemis weren't as altruistic as she made them seem at the time. Five years later, Diana returned to take the first-born child of Artemis and her husband, Alison, after she sensed the magical potential in the child. When Artemis began to resist giving up her eldest daughter, Diana threatened her by reminding Artemis that if she did not deliver on her end of the bargain, that not only would she take Alison, but she would also take all of her children, including young Adam and baby Christopher, who was still in the womb at the time. Artemis became furious and vowed that she would immerse herself in the Dark Arts again until she grew in power to the point that she could one day defeat her sister. However, Diana was not intimidated, and she reminded her that Artemis could never match her power. Afterward, Artemis did as Diana suggested and told her husband that their daughter died in the plague. In their grief, Artemis, Jonathan, and their sons Adam and Christopher set out on a journey to the New World in hopes of preventing the loss of more children to the disease. With Alison in her possession, Diana planned to make the child the first of a long line of Jonathanson first-borns, believing that she would not only be able to use to create an all-powerful coven with her sister's descendants, but would also be granted an endless source of magical power from which Diana could channel to fuel her spells. After forging her own brand of connective magic, Diana cast a connectivity spell on herself and Alison, which both augmented the younger witch's power and allowed Diana to draw more strength from her. This gave Diana more power than ever, which she then immediately used to destroy an entire Viking village, whose chief had threatened to have her exiled for being a witch, with a wave of her hand. Diana spent the next years raising Alison and training her in witchcraft, which led her to become a powerful witch in her own right. According to Alison's accounts later in life, Diana treated her like a slave and only seemed to value her for how much power she could give her; however, though Diana herself later admitted that she made a mistake in denying Alison the love of a parent, she still insists that she was only doing what needed to be done to both protect Alison from anyone who would use her for her magical gifts and to protect Alison from her own immense, wild magical power that came from her status as a first-born witch of Diana and Artemis's bloodline. Eventually, Diana enacted her plan to make both herself and Alison essentially immortal by casting a spell which protect them from all conventional forms of harm and death and live for centuries; the spell would require that Diana and Alison sleep in a state of suspended animation for a full century, after which they would awaken for one single year of activity and aging with access to all of the power they had accrued during their long slumber, making them among the most powerful witches in history. However, Alison, tired of living as an indentured servant with no life or freedom of her own, pleaded to Diana to spare her from the spell, which she believed to be a curse; unfortunately for Alison, Diana cast the spell on them both anyway, and insisted that Alison would one day thank her for gifting her with eternal life. When Diana learned that Artemis had turned her husband and surviving children into vampires, preventing them from ever having children of their own whom Diana could claim as part of her bargain with Artemis, she became furious at this loss of potential Jonathanson witches whom she believed she was owed. In response to this unexpected setback, she turned to Alison, the last living Jonathanson, to continue Artemis's bloodline. Alison, who hated Diana for everything she had inflicted on her over the course of her life, swore she would never love or have children, as she knew they would be condemned to the same life of slavery that she was. However, after Diana and Alison awoke for their single year of life in the early 1400s, Alison fell in love with a man named Jonathan despite her vow to remain alone. Diana encouraged this romance in hopes that Alison would bear her a child to add to their power, and eventually, Alison did indeed become pregnant with a son. Jonathan, like Alison, wanted their child to be free more than anything else, and so he tried to help the three of them escape from Diana shortly before the child would be born. When Diana learned of this betrayal, she killed Jonathan before Alison's eyes with a death hex. Grief-stricken, Alison drank the most potent of Diana's poisons, hoping to kill herself and her child and end the vicious cycle of misery in which she was trapped. However, the spell Diana cast that granted them pseudo-immortality also protected them from any form of harm, rendering Alison incapable of dying from any means, including by poison. Unfortunately for Alison, her unborn son was not afforded this protection, and he ultimately died from the poison she drank, a revelation which devastated Alison. Diana was furious with her for taking the life of the first-born she was owed, but she claimed that she would, eventually, come to forgive her. An unknown amount of time later, Alison finally managed to escape Diana's control, although according to her, she knows Diana will not stop until she finally tracks her down - when she described her situation to Christopher, Alison stated that her punishment for running away from Diana would be "profound". Personality It had been suggested by Artemis/Diana herself and later confirmed in flashbacks that she was much kinder and caring in her youth, as Diana claimed to have not only taken the brunt of the Vikings abuse while she and Artemis were in captivity to prevent her sister from being harmed, but that she also never resented Artemis for it, as they had made a promise to stick together forever. Artemis also went to her for help to give her the ability to conceive children and did not anticipate the payment Diana would request in exchange, suggesting that Diana's personality was much more gentle in her earlier years. However, after Artemis left her sister to marry one of their Viking captors, Diana's hatred of being oppressed by the warriors led her to develop a much colder and more calculating personality after she vowed to never allow herself to be that vulnerable again. In adulthood, Diana became a wicked, selfish, manipulative, and spiteful woman, as evidenced by when she collected her niece Alison from Artemis in payment for her fertility spell and threatened to take all of Artemis's children if Artemis did not comply. Diana was devoted to witchcraft and seemingly finds the idea of starting a family ridiculous, though she has had no qualms with raising the children she claimed from the Mikaelson bloodline in order to augment her own magic. While she did help Artemis get pregnant with a spell, it was only as a means to her own end; to create an extremely powerful coven of witches from whom she could use as a source of power. It had even been speculated that Diana could have originally cursed Artemis with infertility in the first place in retribution for abandoning her, though this has yet to be confirmed in canon. During flashbacks to her time spent raising Alison, Diana showed several key traits of psychopathy, such as a lack of remorse and empathy, evidenced by the fact that she had no difficulty destroying those who sought to prevent her from gaining more power, and went so far as to bluntly tell a five-year-old Alison, after she began crying for her mother, that Artemis no longer wanted her. She had also been said to deal with disobedience harshly, as Alison said that any disobedience was punishable by death in Diana's eyes, and she fears that her own punishment for leaving Diana's control will be "profound". Based on Alison's words, she seems to share some traits of personality with her nephew Jacob, and Diana herself even claimed that she and Jacob shared the same plight after they were both abused and oppressed in their youth by those who sought to control them. She had also shown similarities with another one of her nephews, Christopher, as they both believe that true power comes from family; however, they each have very different perspectives on how that power should be used. She was a fundamentally selfish being, viewing everything in relation to how it benefits herself and increases her own power, and had little interest in how it could negatively affect others. However, though Diana had shown to possess powers far and beyond those of any other witch on either series, and had used said power to great effect against those who stand against her, Diana prefers to achieve her goals with the least amount of complication, effort, or violence, and as a result, she was not above playing nice with others to expedite her plans. She had been shown to make deals, compromises, and concessions in order to get what she wants more efficiently, and did not seem to want to resort to killing or violence unless it's absolutely necessary. She claimed to be willing to allow Jacob to take care of Charlie as her father while she trains her in using her powers, as doing so will give Diana access to the power she claims she was owed while still giving Charlie the parental love and affection that she mistakenly denied Alison; Diana freely admitted that it was that lack of parental love that caused Alison to turn against her, and claimed that this is something she does not wish to repeat with Charlie. However, as with Artemis, Diana's bargains have a hefty price, and she asked Jacob to eliminate Hayley to ensure that their arrangement continued as promised without complication. As Diana predominately seems to use Dark Magic, she had shown an affinity for land that is steeped in darkness and death, locations that have been imbued with the dark power created by a massacre, or sacred ground that has been stained by the blood of the innocent. When Diana used Kenning to possess Jackson, he felt her inside his mind and described her as being nothing but pure darkness. However, she did respect the passion that Jacob shows in defense of those he cares about, which she said she had not anticipated given the reputation that proceeded him. Nevertheless, she showed no mercy in striking him down after he and Mikael showed up with a weapon to render her mortal, as she was intent to gain what she believes is hers. Despite her methods, Diana made it clear that she only came for Charlie and she would be willing to spare the lives of the Mikaelsons if her wishes are granted, showing a measure of twisted mercy. She showed a similar kindness to the werewolf Aiden while she was brutally killing him, suggesting that, in a warped way, she appreciates the people she kills for their role in her plans, as her goal for Aiden's death was to cause the Mikaelsons to turn against each other, an intention that ultimately played out exactly as she wanted. Despite the behavior Diana exhibits, had a very rigid sense of honor, as she prides herself on being a woman of her word and had made it clear that she expects those with whom she has made promises to do the same. As such, she has constantly reiterated that she promises not to harm any of the Mikaelsons and their allies as long as they hand Charlie over to her. She also appears to have a very corrupted sense of respect for her own kind. This was evidenced when Diana, who had the intention of killing a witch ally of the Mikaelsons named Josephine to help weaken their plans to protect Hope from her, was surprisingly polite and gentle with her target. Diana even went so far as to cure Josephine's cursed hands and allowing her to play her beloved violin one last time before she slit her throat with the very bow she used to play. Diana was brutally victimized by the Vikings in her youth in Norway, and she has since then vowed to never be weak again. It was this event that played the most major role in who Diana became in adulthood, and also led to her hatred of Vikings in general, especially Mikael, who married her sister and took her away from her. Diana was seemingly hypocritical, though, as she has stated on more than one occasion that she believes that she had done nothing but good for Alison, and even went so far as to suggest that her family only wanted to use her for her power, behavior that, in psychology, was referred to "projection"; in this case, Diana projecting onto Alison her awareness that she had used Alison for her power for centuries in order to turn her against those who would try to stop her from doing so. Diana was very intelligent and a brilliant strategist, as she killed Aiden and made it look like Jacob did it, to frame him for this act, effectively dividing the family to the point that they were too scattered to create a comprehensive plan, and turning her nephew, Jacob against his maternal half-siblings and Hayley, however, unlike her sister Artemis, she never underestimated members of her family, or her enemies. Diana gave her nephew, Jacob, a glimpse into her past to make him understand things from her point of view in an attempt to show them that they are, in a way, kindred spirits. Like Jacob, she was painted as the villain in their families, and she walked him through her memories that demonstrated she was once a loyal, loving, and protective sister to Artemis who did her best to make sure that Artemis wasn't harmed while they served the Vikings. However, when Artemis betrayed her, Diana grew to become the woman that she was today. Despite her suffering, Diana was shown to truly care for Alison, her eldest niece, helping her to control her unbridled powers and protecting her from the evils of those who hate witches for practicing a magic they can't hope to understand. However, Diana's heart has long been turned to stone after Artemis turned her back on her older sister to marry Mikael. Her reaching out to Jacob was a blatant attempt at exploiting his deep-seated vulnerabilities so she could have Charlie's power without any opposition. She never anticipated that Jacob was only putting on an act to buy his siblings time to prepare the weapon to kill his maternal aunt and she reacted to his with unrestrained fury. She revealed to Alison that she lost the ability to love after Artemis abandoned her and that Alison was never able to soften her aunt's heart, vowing to destroy her younger sister's children in revenge. However, Diana eventually made peace with Artemis after the latter sacrificed herself to end the former's life. Meeting in the afterlife, Artemis delivers a heartfelt apology that Diana tearfully accepts, granting both sisters peace. Category:Characters Category:Mikaelson Family Category:Female Characters